On the Night Lights Festival
So last year, my brother and his girlfriend invited us to join them on a trip to a lantern festival. And it got rained out. And I was disappointed. So this year when our tickets were transferred to the next festival, I was really looking forward to it. Tangled is my favorite Disney movie (to the point that I’ve made my own Rapunzel dress) so I really wanted my “floating lights” moment. We went this year for a long weekend in the mountains and it had its ups and downs.
Pro: Such a cool experience! Seeing so many floating, lit lanterns is undescribable, so I have photos below. It was absolutely magical!
Con: The venue felt rather unsafe. From the use of fire everywhere (expected) to the general lack of security and bag checks, to the over2whelming amount of people. It had my head on a swivel and it was hard for us to really relax.
Pro: An excuse to get away! This was about 2 hours north of home, up in the mountains, so we booked a hotel room and stayed the weekend!
Con: That hotel? Pretty crap. It marketed itself as a “resort” hotel for adults only. Which meant it had a casino and race track but not much else. There wasn’t even a pool! Our room was also pretty boring. To top it off, the staff overall seemed miserable! Would not recommend.
Pro: An excuse to hang out with my brother and his girlfriend! I’ve really been pushing to see family more, and spending time with them over the weekend was nice.
Con: We didn’t spend enough time together. Part of this was miscommunication and bad timing, but part of this was because we spent more time driving than expected.
Pro: Far away means lots of beautiful views! The mountains had a lovely “rain in the fall” quality. The weather was lovely and we got to see a lot of cool sights on the way.
Con: I did so much driving. We got gas twice over the weekend (and it ain’t cheap, even for our little car) partially because of how far away the mountains are, but partially because we goofed on our way back from the festival. My phone froze so Brian typed in the address on his. Only our hotel shares a very similar name with something else in the general vicinity. Sort of. After the festival ended, we accidentally drove 45 minutes south instead of 40 minutes west. And had to drive another hour to eventually get back to our hotel. Cinderella and her pumpkin made it just as midnight hit, but man I’m in need of a break from driving!
Long story short, the trip could have been improved. But it was a cool experience and I’m still happy we did it! Enjoy the photos.
They gave us “Golden Tickets” to redeem our lanterns!
Brian took a lot of great photos. This one was from his phone.
And this one was from his camera. It’s a little blurry (I was moving around) but he rarely takes pictures of people. I have to savor it when I get it.